Indiana, Oklahoma, and Texas are the latest states to join the wave of others opting out of pandemic-era unemployment programs next month that will slash benefits for 3.6 million workers.
“It’s incredibly disappointing that even in states with high unemployment rates like Texas, Republican Governors are putting ideology over the needs of their workers,” Andrew Stettner, an unemployment insurance expert and senior fellow at the Century Foundation, told Yahoo Money.
“For the first time in the pandemic, unemployed workers will largely not be able to find a source for help as they struggle to find a job.”
And yes, Republicans are blaming the more generous jobless benefits in the $1.9 trillion stimulous package passed in March. It is set to expire on September 6, 2021. GOP lawmakers are blaming that extra money for slowing down the country’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and labor shortages across a number of sectors.
On Friday, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) sent out a letter to all Republican governors, urging them to opt-out of the federal jobless benefits program. This means that workers in 21 states will collectively lose $21.3 billion, averaging out to potentially thousands of dollars per worker, according to the Century Foundation.
“It’s going to hurt a lot of people a great deal,” said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, about the early end of unemployment benefits.
Another aspect of the federal benefits program that is really going to hurt is that those 21 states are also cutting off jobless benefits to contractors, gig workers, and others. These workers will lose access to the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, meaning they won’t get any benefits at all.
